Neshaminy’s 28-0 win over Souderton highlights Friday’s SOL football wrap. To view photos of the Neshaminy/Souderton game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Scott Huff
Franconia – Paybacks can be (fill in the blank).
Last season Souderton dished out an 18-7 loss to Neshaminy – and it was a game that the senior class of the Redskins would not forget. This season the ‘Skins were forced to wait an extra day due to a weather postponement Thursday night and were forced to make a return trek from Heartbreak Ridge to the farmlands of Franconia Township on Friday afternoon. But the wait and the accumulation of miles on the bus proved to be worth it as Neshaminy (3-0) remained unbeaten for the season with a 28-0 non-conference victory over the host Indians (0-3).
“We had some players step up and play well, but we were a little disappointed on how we played today,” said Neshmainy head coach Mark Schmidt. “I just didn’t like the feeling we had on the sidelines, but there were times later in the game where I felt that we were playing the way we can play.”
“The first half was horrendous,” said Neshaminy senior Luke Carrezola who spearheaded a Redskin defensive effort that recorded its third straight shutout of the season. “We are going to have to watch a lot of film and fix some of the things that we were doing wrong on both offense and defense.
“Sure we had to come here two days in a row, but we only play 10 games a year and we have to be ready to play,” added Carrezola. “We feel we can win games with our defensive effort, and we played well on defense again today.”
“We really struggled to block Carrezola all day,” said Souderton head coach Ed Gallagher. “Neshaminy is very quick, very fast, and very physical. Add that to their experience and that makes them very tough to beat.”
After a scoreless first period, Neshaminy scored on the very first play of the second period as senior fullback Denny Lord bulled in from the one-yard line. Dylan McDonald would connect on the first of his four successful extra points to present the Skins with a 7-0 lead.
The lead would expand to 14-0 before the close of the first half. D’Andre Pollard – who rushed for a game-high 165 yards – finished off a four-play drive that covered 80 yards with a magnificent 48-yard touchdown dash. Pollard also caught a 21-yard pass from senior quarterback Tyler Wombough in the scoring drive.
“D’Andre is a great kid that has great instincts in the open field,” said Schmidt. “We want to be able to take advantage of his talents by getting him the ball in open space.”
Neshaminy stretched the lead to 21-0 on its second possession of the second half. The Redskins marched just 35-yards on eight plays for the touchdown. Wombough – faced with a fourth and eight from the Souderton 21 yard line – threw a terrific scoring pass to sophomore wide receiver Denzel Hughes in the back of the end zone. Wombough finished with eight completions for 93 yards.
The final Neshmainy score came in the final period as Pollard raced 59 yards to pay dirt.
“I was proud of the effort the kids gave today,” said Gallagher. “I felt that when they pushed us and got physical, we pushed back. We needed to become more physical, and I thought we were today.
“We moved the ball better in the second half, but when you don’t score, you can’t be happy,” added Gallagher. “We have to find a way to put the ball in the end zone if we want to be able to win football games.
“We open our conference schedule next week with Central Bucks West,” continued Gallagher. “We have a lot of work to do between now and then.”
Next for Neshaminy in its SOL National Conference opener will be William Tennent – the same William Tennent team that upset the Redskins 20-17 last year.
“Tennent came out and beat us last year,” smiled Schmidt. “I think the players just might remember that.”
Paybacks can be (fill in the blank).
Neshaminy Redskins 0 14 7 7 * 28
Souderton Indians 0 0 0 0 * 0
N: Denny Lord 1 run (Dylan McDonald kick)
N: D’Andre Pollard 48 run (McDonald kick)
N: Denzel Hughes 21 pass from Tyler Wombough (McDonald kick)
N: Pollard 59 run (McDonald kick)
Neshaminy Redskins Souderton Indians
11 First Downs 10
183 Rushing Yards 68
93 Passing Yards 65
276 Total Offense 133
4-30 Punts / Avg 6-29
11-70 Penalties / Yds 4-45
Neshaminy
Rushing: D’Andre Pollard 19-165- 2 TD; Cole Creighton 1-18; Denny Lord 2-3 & TD; Tokon Buesmaill 1-3; Blake Sullivan 2-2; Tyler Wombough 2 (minus 8). Totals 27-183 – 3 TD.
Passing: Wombough 8-16-1; 93 yards & TD.
Receiving: Hamid Pack 4-39; Pollard 1-32; Denzel Hughes 1-21 and TD; Creighton 2-1. Totals 8-93 & TD.
Interceptions: Hughes.
Souderton
Rushing: Nate Landis 7-35; Blake Gular 11-21; Micah Bosico 1-17; Jamar White 5-11; Taz Smith 8 (minus 2); AJ Curotto 9 (minus 14). Totals 41-68.
Passing: Curotto 9-16-1; 68 yards.
Receiving: Manny Nieves 7-51; White 1-8; Smith 1-6. Totals 9-65.
Interceptions: Jason Smith
*******
UPPER DUBLIN FLYING CARDINALS – 31 **** ABRAHAM LINCOLN RAILSPLITTERS – 0.
Upper Dublin (3-0) ran through its non-conference schedule unbeaten with the easy win over Lincoln. The Flying Cardinals also soared to victories over Central Bucks West (45-21) and Truman (21-7).
“Sure it’s nice to be 3-0, but we will begin to measure ourselves starting this Friday against Wissahickon,” said Upper Dublin head coach Bret Stover. “Our goal is to win the (SOL) American Conference championship, and both Wissahickon and Plymouth Whitemarsh have been the teams in recent years that you have to beat. Wissahickon won a district playoff game last year, and PW is the defending champion.
“The coaches in this conference always do a good job of preparing the players,” added Stover. “Look what PW did in beating Downingtown West (36-34 in overtime). The next seven weeks should be very interesting.”
In the win over Lincoln, Trey Jackson scored on touchdown runs of two and 15 yards, while John Lee also scored a rushing TD on a two-yard run. Ryan Stover threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Nate Webster and place kicker Mike D’Ambrosio booted a 32-yard field goal to account for the other Cardinal points.
Upper Dublin Cardinals 10 7 7 7 * 31
Lincoln Railsplitters 0 0 0 0 * 0
HARRY S TRUMAN TIGERS – 52 **** SAMUEL FELS PANTHERS – 22.
Truman (2-1) will venture into the Suburban One League National Conference on a winning note with a decisive victory over a Fels (0-3) team that competes in the Philadelphia Public League. In addition to the win over Fels, the Tigers also captured a 47-21win over Lincoln during its non-conference schedule. The lone non-conference setback was a 21-7 loss to Upper Dublin.
“Our defense was awesome today,” said Truman head coach Ed Cubbage. “We created six turnovers, and our defense game us a short field to work with most of the game. Brandon Hill returned a fumble 65-yards for a touchdown, and (senior quarterback) Jake Zolna had a nice game.”
Zolna ran for three Tiger touchdowns and also threw a touchdown pass for the winners.
“We get Pennsbury and Neshaminy back-to-back to start the conference schedule,” said Cubbage. “We understand that they are both a significant step up in talent than the teams we played in the non-conference schedule. But the players are looking forward to the challenge, and we want to finish this conference schedule with at least one Suburban One win this year. We haven’t won a league game in two years, and we really want to reach that goal of winning in the league.”
*******
The Rest of the Story in the Suburban One League
There are still five games involving SOL teams that still must be played to complete the third week of the season. The schedule has a trio of games on Saturday and a pair of games on Monday.
Norristown (0-2) will host Bishop Shanahan (1-0) Saturday afternoon (1 pm), North Penn (0-2) will face off with St. Joe Prep (1-1) on Saturday night (7 pm) at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, and Quakertown (2-0) will host Cheltenham (1-1) Saturday night @ 7:30 pm.
William Tennent (0-2) will host Upper Moreland (1-1) in a late Monday afternoon (4:30 pm) contest, while Council Rock North (2-0) will host Hatboro-Horsham (2-0) with a 6 pm kickoff.
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